Blinken met Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and then held talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman soon after landing in the kingdom on Wednesday on the first leg of a regional tour that will include Egypt on Thursday and then Israel.

The United States, Israel’s main backer, has previously used its UN Security Council veto to block the world body from calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.

“Of course, we stand with Israel and its right to defend itself … but at the same time, it’s imperative that the civilians who are in harm’s way and who are suffering so terribly – that we focus on them, that we make them a priority, protecting the civilians, getting them humanitarian assistance,” Blinken said.

In Gaza at Ramadan, starvation adds to deaths amid Israel-Hamas truce impasse

Since blocking an Algerian draft resolution calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza at the end of February, US officials have been negotiating an alternative text focusing on support for diplomatic efforts on the ground for a six-week truce in exchange for the release of hostages.

According to diplomatic sources, this text had little chance of gaining the Council’s approval and a new version was circulated to Security Council members on Wednesday.

The amended draft, seen by AFP, stresses “the need for an immediate and durable ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides, enable the delivery of essential humanitarian aid, and alleviate suffering … in conjunction with the release of hostages still held”.

No vote has yet been scheduled on this text.

Blinken’s tour, his sixth to the region since the war began, came as more than a third of the US Senate’s Democrats called on President Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday to take “bold” action towards establishing a Palestinian state.

Nineteen Democratic senators led by Tom Carper, a long-time ally of Biden from his home state of Delaware, wrote that the Middle East crisis had “reached an inflection point” that required US leadership beyond past “facilitation” of Israeli-Palestinian talks.

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Israeli forces open fire on crowd of Palestinians seeking aid,, as Gaza death toll surpasses 30,000

Israeli forces open fire on crowd of Palestinians seeking aid,, as Gaza death toll surpasses 30,000

“As such, we request the Biden administration promptly establish a bold, public framework outlining the steps necessary” to establish a Palestinian state over both the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the senators wrote.

They said an independent Palestinian state would be “non-militarised” – terminology embraced by former president Bill Clinton in his peace push two decades ago – and would recognise Israel while renouncing Hamas.

The senators called for a “regional peace initiative” that would integrate Israel – an allusion to ongoing attempts to persuade Saudi Arabia to offer normalisation with Israel, the focus of the latest visit to the kingdom by Blinken.

Biden and Blinken have repeatedly voiced support for a two-state solution but did little to advance it before the war, aware that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his hard-right government are firmly against the idea.

Meanwhile in Qatar, mediators met for a third day on Wednesday in a renewed effort to secure a ceasefire but with little indication of an imminent agreement.

The plan being discussed in Qatar would temporarily halt the fighting as hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and the delivery of relief supplies is stepped up.

Jared Kushner praises ‘very valuable’ potential of Gaza’s ‘waterfront property’

The latest fighting has included an Israeli assault on Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital, a vast complex crowded with patients and people seeking refuge, where Israel says Palestinian militants are holed up.

The Israeli army said “over 300 suspects” had been apprehended in the hospital raid that began early Monday, including “dozens of senior terrorists and those with key positions”.

Israel said its forces have “killed approximately 90 terrorists” since the start of the raid, and army chief Herzi Halevi said the objective was “not to allow such a place to be controlled” by Hamas.

Hamas condemned Israeli “crimes” at al-Shifa “for the third day in a row, the executions of dozens of displaced persons, patients and staff”.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said at least 70 people had been killed in Gaza overnight.

UN agencies have warned that Gaza’s 2.4 million people are on the brink of famine, and UN rights chief Volker Turk said Israel may be using “starvation as a method of war”.

Blinken had earlier warned that Gaza’s “entire population” is suffering “severe levels of acute food insecurity”.

Riyadh announced as Blinken arrived it would donate US$40 million to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which has been central to aid operations in Gaza but has faced massive funding cuts and calls for its abolition spearheaded by Israel.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned that “siege, hunger and diseases will soon become the main killer in Gaza”.

Rafah, the last area in Gaza to remain free from a large-scale invasion, is now home to some 1.5 million Palestinians, many of them sheltering in tents along the Egyptian border after fleeing from other parts of the coastal territory.

Washington wants Israel to hold back from a full-scale ground assault, citing concern for civilians, but Netanyahu has repeatedly said it was the only way to eradicate Hamas.

Israel has continued to bombard Rafah and said on Wednesday it had “eliminated senior Hamas operatives” in the city.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant will visit Washington in the coming week for talks with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, although neither side gave a date.

Netanyahu’s office said a separate delegation would visit Washington at “the request of Biden” to discuss the planned Rafah assault.

The bloodiest-ever Gaza war broke out after Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians.

Militants also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel believes 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 who are presumed dead.

Israel’s military has waged a retaliatory offensive against Hamas that has killed almost 32,000 people, most of them women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Tensions have also flared in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 437 Palestinians since the Gaza war began.

The toll includes two Palestinians killed in an air strike who the Israeli military said had posed a threat to its troops during an operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank’s northwest early on Thursday.